1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to musical instruments, and more particularly to a drum pedal stabilizer which prevents spring oscillation and eliminates a phenomenon known as hammerdown in a drum pedal used with a bass drum or other kick drum in a drum set.
2. Description of the Related Art
Performers, including professional and amateur drummers and musicians, use a drum pedal to play a kick drum, bass drum, and the like, commonly included as part of a drum kit. These performers seek absolute control of the speed and feel of the drum pedal in order to achieve the ability to perform what is required. This is particularly true for drummers who play music requiring a modulating or any tempo.
When a drum pedal is required to perform dynamic and speedy or fast tempo responses in accordance with the velocity and tempo applied by the performer's foot, by way of pedal depression, the drum pedal must be stabilized or it cannot function in a manner that is comfortable, non-influential and dependable. This is due to the oscillatory nature of conventional steel springs on known pedals used to return the foot pedal and beater to the neutral position, as well as inertia of the beater. The weight of the beater exaggerates the amount of oscillation. This undesirable oscillation causes problems known as beater dropout, pedal and beater oscillation, drum head retrigger, tempo influence and jitter feel. In other words, the undesirable oscillation may cause an unintentional drum strike.
Unwanted oscillation of the pedal spring may cause rhythm flutter, resulting in irregular back pressure on the foot pedal and consequent variation in the arc described by the beater, so that the rhythm of the bass drum may be thrown off tempo. If the spring return and inertia of the beater are strong enough, the beater hammer may return to a position either in contact with, or closely adjacent to, the drum head after release of the foot pedal, so that when the foot pedal is next pressed, the result is either no sound or a softer sound than desired, a phenomenon referred to as hammerdown or dropout. Even minor spring oscillation causes rhythmic fluctuations that are predetermined by the tension of the return spring, so that when these fluctuations match music tempos, the phenomenon of hammerdown occurs.
Spring return is a fast, reliable method of returning the beater in a drum pedal and beater. However, conventional countering spring methods only transfer oscillation back and forth and do not stop oscillation, or thoroughly reduce or stabilize the drum pedal and beater. Total pneumatic systems are too slow for speedy performance. Also, pneumatic type drum beaters are expensive.
A variety of devices have been proposed for controlling a drum pedal and beater. However, the devices of the prior art have not solved the above-referenced problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 886,471, issued May 5, 1908 to Britton, describes a pneumatically operated drumbeater that suppresses oscillatory motion of the beater. U.S. Pat. No. 2,736,823, issued Feb. 28, 1956 to Sheppard et al., describes an acoustic transducer and damping assembly. U.S. Pat. No. 3,381,565, issued May 7, 1968 to Haile, describes a foot-operated chord organ.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,426,640, issued Feb. 11, 1969 to Slingerland, Jr., describes a quick connect pedal connector. U.S. Pat. No. 3,618,441, issued Nov. 9, 1971 to Fearns, describes a double acting drum pedal. U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,356, issued Mar. 19, 1974 to Duffy et al., describes a linkage for a foot operated bass drum pedal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,896, issued Sep. 20, 1977 to Calato et al., describes a drum pedal with an opposing and adjustable set of springs for dampening the oscillatory motion of the drumbeater. U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,490, issued Oct. 24, 1978 to Deutsch, describes a touch responsive electronic piano. U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,967, issued May 8, 1979 to Barron, describes pneumatic piano action.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,576, issued Apr. 21, 1981 to Gorsky et al., describes a percussion instrument striking apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,471, issued Oct. 26, 1982 to Nienaber, describes a gas pedal movement damper. U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,825, issued Oct. 18, 1983 to Lobastov, describes a piezoelectric pressure transducer with a threaded damper bar.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,224, issued Jul. 12, 1988 to Lombardi, describes a drum beating apparatus with an eccentric rotor. U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,532, issued Jan. 2, 1990 to Carlson, describes a foot activated musical drum pedal device. U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,802, issued Aug. 7, 1990 to Ruprecht, describes a viscous damper incorporated into the linkage of a foot actuated drum pedal for stabilizing a beater's return oscillatory motion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,026,248, issued Jun. 25, 1991 to Hamilton, describes a hydrodynamic swing damper and tree handling vehicle incorporating the same. U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,046, issued Nov. 8, 1994 to Sims, describes vibration damping. U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,824, issued Nov. 22, 1994 to Hoshino, describes a spring adjustment mechanism for a drum pedal beater.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,259, issued Jan. 6, 1998 to Riehle, describes a hand operated impact implement having a tuned vibration absorber. U.S. Pat. No. 5,798,472, issued Aug. 25, 1998 to Shigenaga, describes a drum beater for a bass drum equipped with an exactly adjustable return spring regulator. U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,795, issued Jun. 15, 1999 to Tucker, describes a hammer with a vibration damper and a method of making the same.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,342, issued May 29, 2001 to Chang, describes a stretching structure of a drum foot pedal. German Patent No. 2,061,077, published Jun. 15, 1972, describes a foot pedal mechanism for a beater.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus a drum pedal stabilizer solving the aforementioned problems is desired.